Local exhaust ventilation records document the continuing condition and status of engineering plant. They may show that a system was tested, inspected, maintained or altered, but the applicable UAE sources do not establish a single national record format. Abu Dhabi and Sharjah take materially different approaches. The Abu Dhabi source concentrates on valid and current certificates kept at the workplace for the life of the system, whereas the Sharjah source calls for a logbook or equivalent records covering several categories of work. Neither source should be supplemented with an assumed retention period imported from unrelated worker exposure legislation. The boundaries of this engineering-plant resource are distinct from the respirable crystalline silica site, the industrial hygiene site carrying a page on ventilation and LEV assessment from the occupational hygiene angle, the VOC and indoor chemicals site covering adhesives, sealants and solvents, and the construction dust site. Personal exposure monitoring, health effects and airborne contaminant sampling fall outside this site, while kitchen extract cleaning belongs to the separate duct hygiene resource.
ADPHC Code of Practice CoP 52.0 Local Exhaust Ventilation, Version 4.1, dated 27 February 2026, was issued by the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre under ADOSH-SF and is mandatory for employers in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Section 4 is headed Record Keeping. It contains one clause, and that clause is the whole of the Code's record-keeping section.
The clause states: "Employers shall ensure they keep appropriate records as required by their OSHMS including, but not limited to valid and up to date test and inspection certificates for LEV systems. These shall be maintained on site for the lifetime of the LEV system."
That short provision establishes two clear requirements. The relevant records are to be maintained on site, rather than merely being available from a remote contractor or central office, and they are to be maintained for the lifetime of the LEV system. The lifetime of the system is a retention basis, not a measured quantity, and therefore carries no averaging period or sampling basis. The provision does not substitute a fixed number of calendar years for the operating life of the plant.
The wording begins with the broader expression "appropriate records as required by their OSHMS". It then identifies valid and up to date test and inspection certificates as records included within that obligation. The clause therefore connects LEV documentation to the employer's occupational safety and health management system while placing particular emphasis on certificates that remain valid and current.
The Code does not provide a prescribed certificate template. It does not state which measurements, observations, photographs, design data, signatures, asset references, deficiencies or recommendations must appear on a certificate. It also does not specify whether a document must be called a certificate, test certificate, inspection certificate or report. Those omissions should be stated plainly rather than filled with formats derived from overseas guidance or private practice.
The Code similarly gives no detailed register of record categories. It does not expressly list maintenance sheets, repair records, commissioning reports, drawings, fan data, filter changes, modification approvals or operator checks. Such material may form part of the appropriate records required by an employer's OSHMS, but ADPHC CoP 52.0 does not prescribe that content in Section 4. The definite minimum expressed in the clause is the presence of valid and up to date test and inspection certificates, maintained on site for the lifetime of the system.
The terms "five years" and "5 years" each appear zero times in ADPHC CoP 52.0. The word "lifetime" appears once, in the record-keeping clause. The Code therefore does not establish a five-year retention period for LEV plant records in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Substituting five years for the lifetime of the system would change the stated retention basis rather than interpret it.
A federal five-year figure does circulate in occupational safety and health discussions, but it arises from a different federal instrument governing injury and occupational-disease monitoring in establishments employing fifty or more workers. That figure concerns records of workers exposed to occupational hazards, which are retained for not less than five years after termination of their service. It is a personnel exposure record retention period.
That federal personnel provision is not an LEV plant record rule. It does not replace the Abu Dhabi requirement to maintain the relevant LEV records on site for the lifetime of the system. A worker's exposure record follows the employment and occupational-health context described by the federal instrument; an LEV certificate follows the engineering plant to which ADPHC CoP 52.0 applies. The two retention duties have different subjects, different purposes and different triggering events, and the federal five-year figure must never be transposed onto LEV records.
Sharjah Guideline OSHJ-GL-12 Local Exhaust Ventilation, Version 1 Rev 0, September 2021, was issued by the Sharjah Prevention and Safety Authority under the Occupational Safety and Health System in Sharjah. It is a Sharjah Prevention and Safety Authority Guideline setting minimum acceptable requirements. Section 5.7 states: "The entity shall record and retain a logbook or suitable records of maintenance, inspections, examinations and tests carried out on LEV systems."
This is the only clause in the whole Sharjah Guideline that uses the word "shall". It expressly identifies a logbook or suitable records and expressly names maintenance, inspections, examinations and tests as the activities to be recorded. The wording allows a logbook or another suitable record system, so it does not limit an entity to a bound paper book or a particular electronic format.
The Sharjah Guideline states no retention period at all. It requires the entity to record and retain the specified information but does not say how long retention must continue, where the records must be stored or what fields a logbook must contain. No fixed period should therefore be attributed to Section 5.7. The Sharjah source also does not provide a model logbook, mandatory certificate layout or prescribed naming convention.
The words "logbook" and "log book" each appear zero times in ADPHC CoP 52.0. Abu Dhabi therefore has no express logbook requirement in this Code. A management system may use a logbook as a practical method of organising plant history, but that would be an organisational choice or an OSHMS control rather than a document expressly prescribed by CoP 52.0.
The distinction matters when records are reviewed across several Emirates. A Sharjah file may properly be assessed against the express requirement for a logbook or suitable records of maintenance, inspections, examinations and tests. An Abu Dhabi file should not be declared deficient merely because it lacks a document titled "LEV logbook". The Abu Dhabi question is whether appropriate OSHMS records, including valid and up to date test and inspection certificates, are kept on site for the lifetime of the system.
ADPHC CoP 52.0 prescribes no record content beyond that certificate requirement. It does not say what a certificate must contain. It also does not define how individual certificates should be indexed, linked to plant identification, signed, revised or protected from alteration. Those matters may be addressed by the employer's OSHMS, contractual requirements or the system documentation, but they are not detailed in the quoted record-keeping clause.
An LEV record system has practical value because engineering plant changes through installation, operation, repair, adjustment and eventual replacement. A certificate that cannot be connected to the correct hood, duct branch, air cleaner, fan or complete system may be difficult to interpret, even though the UAE sources do not prescribe the identification method. Clear asset references remain an engineering-documentation matter rather than a separately stated regulatory format.
The Abu Dhabi lifetime basis also means that replacement decisions should distinguish between a repair, a modified component and the retirement of the complete system. ADPHC CoP 52.0 does not explain when the lifetime of an LEV system legally begins or ends, nor does it define whether a substantially rebuilt system becomes a new system for record purposes. The source is silent, so the plant history and the organisation's OSHMS must preserve enough information to explain what equipment existed and which certificate applied at each stage.
Where a system is removed, the quoted clause no longer supplies a further post-retirement period. It says that records are maintained on site for the lifetime of the LEV system and states no additional archive period after that lifetime ends. Any longer retention may be selected for contractual, evidential or management reasons, but it should not be represented as a period prescribed by ADPHC CoP 52.0.
ADPHC Codes of Practice are mandatory for employers in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Sharjah OSHJ-GL-12 is a Sharjah Prevention and Safety Authority Guideline setting minimum acceptable requirements in the Emirate of Sharjah.
ADPHC CoP 52.0 Version 4.1, dated 27 February 2026, Section 4(a); Sharjah OSHJ-GL-12 Version 1 Rev 0 Section 5.7.
Answer: ADPHC Code of Practice CoP 52.0 Local Exhaust Ventilation, Version 4.1, dated 27 February 2026, was issued by the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre under ADOSH-SF and is mandatory for employers in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Section 4 requires appropriate records, including valid and up to date test and inspection certificates, to be maintained on site for the lifetime of the LEV system. The lifetime of the system is a retention basis rather than a measured quantity. The Code does not prescribe five years as the retention period for LEV plant records.
Answer: ADPHC Code of Practice CoP 52.0 Local Exhaust Ventilation, Version 4.1, dated 27 February 2026, was issued by the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre under ADOSH-SF and is mandatory for employers in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The words "logbook" and "log book" do not appear in the Code. Section 4 instead requires appropriate OSHMS records, including valid and up to date test and inspection certificates, to be maintained on site for the lifetime of the LEV system. A logbook may be used voluntarily, but CoP 52.0 does not expressly require one or prescribe its contents.
Answer: Sharjah Guideline OSHJ-GL-12 Local Exhaust Ventilation, Version 1 Rev 0, September 2021, was issued by the Sharjah Prevention and Safety Authority under the Occupational Safety and Health System in Sharjah and sets minimum acceptable requirements. Section 5.7 states that the entity shall record and retain a logbook or suitable records of maintenance, inspections, examinations and tests carried out on LEV systems. The Sharjah Guideline states no retention period, storage location or mandatory record format. No fixed number of years should therefore be attributed to that provision.
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